Finally a good space game!! I avoided this game for years because I believed it was just another large hex honeycomb looking 4x space game. It is not!! This is an adventure game, a true space opera!! Thank the gods!! I could not handle another 4x honeycomb game. 4x is not space opera, it is civ with spaceships.

If you want to be in a Firefly, Han Solo, Stars My Destination type world, look no further. I just played Eclipse for the first time, and while an exceptional "design" it is just an echo of previous Twilight Imperium ideas. Phantom League was a refreshing joy for me.

Like Zanzair, the combat is unfortunately kind of horrible. So far I haven't played a game where card combat has worked. FFG has been cranking out games recently that use card combat, and each one has diminished the overall experience for my game groups. I can understand the appeal of hoping it will be cool design-wise but so far card combat adventure games are like playing a gorgeous game of Runebound and then having to play an overly complicated game of MtG for 5 minutes. Oil and water beverage really.

I will house rule combat if player are avoiding the game due to combat. This game is a gem, and should not sit on a shelf if the combat gets in the way!!!

Very good game based on Elite (the computer game), and feels like it also. Nice product (even if the box is too small) with great potential for an expansion. The pirate ships are mostly tough, but there is a nice balance between trading and combat and their relative risks.

Once you are passed the initial trading and building up your ship stage, this game really comes into its own. Tremendous fun and furious play. It is "Elite" the boardgame and those of us old enough to have played the original will love this game!.... Now hwere's that docking computer?

This rating is on the high side. I want to love this game. I do love this game. Just be prepared for frustration, mishaps and you best laid plans brought to naught due to event cards. If you can roll with that, you will probably enjoy this card board version of "Elite". (Though I hate, hate, hate the alien encounter card that turns you into an avatar energy being )

Love it - lots of room to grow into this one. Disappointed that the expansion is so hard to get if you didn't preorder and seems necessary to fill the game out i.e. going to the Dark Side offers very little in the way of benefits in the base game so not really worth it and that is a shame. I wanted to trade in drugs and slaves in my first game and quickly found that it was a mistake and cost me the game. Just to difficult and others will pass you by as you try to make that big dangerous score. The chances of success are just to low. BUT - worth investigating more I suppose - attacking as much as possible and trading in slaves and drugs sporatically when your odds are the greatest. The Dark Side just calls... :-)

This is a really fun storytelling almost rpg-ish type of game. Feels a lot like merchants and marauders in space. The combat system can be a little drawn out but it is unlike any other combat system I've seen in a game. I really liked The Phantom League! More expansions!!!

Really nice game, lots of interesting tactics and a great 'elite' or 'X' board game. Loses a few marks as the rules are a little clunky (especially combat), and the two player game leaves a little to be desired.

I can't pinpoint what I didn't like. Obviously it needed a bit more mainstreaming, rules trimming and less micromanagement. However, as it is inspired by the Elite PC game, less micromanagement could ruin the point of the game. I did like the innovative battle system. I liked every aspect of the game at least a bit, but there was no main aspect that I enjoyed greatly.

Fairly impressed with this as a 'star trader' type game, once I got past the intimidatingly long rulebook. While it comes with heavy dose of randomness it's mostly not too heavy handed - with more experience you could probably judge the risk reward better and fans of Elite will love the HT in the random events linked to docking and travelling into unexplored territory - and it compares well with my meory of 'Merchants of Venus' as a trading game. With three players, turns came around fairly quickly we finished in around an hour and a half; though we assidiously avoided conflict (which I suspect would extend the time somewhat as it accounts for half the rulebook) being quite happy to explore, fulfil our missions and exploit the trade routes. Praise is also due to the publishers for the massive amount of stuff crammed into the box - a very impressive opposite of 'empty box syndome'.

I want to love this game. Concept and theme are a full 10 for me. But the current edition has far too many problems. It's a playtest version that's been pushes to production to make it in time for Spiel 2010, and that has caused a lot of problems: the components don't fit in the box, the rulebook is incomplete and already obsolete. The rules that were explained during the demo game are nowhere to be found in the rulebook. And I think the combat system still needs some work.

I'll adjust my vote when I get my hands on a fixed version of this game.

Thematically very strong game with well working graphics. I think that battle system doesn't fit to the game because it is too complicated and slows down the game. There's lots of things to do when playing this game and tension gets gradually higher towards the end. Good replayability value. Needs more plays to say if it is balanced though. Rating could rise with more plays.

Rating after one play, with pre-release versionNice game with strong theme. Science fiction is usually not my thing. I liked the game, it had a lot of things to do. Your chosen character and the features of your ship strongly guide your gameplay. I like the way you can have many different paths to victory. There is not one correct way to winning the game, though some ways might be extremely hard with your setup. Me likes.

Really innovative game but has quite confusing manual and combat system, which is going to be solved with the expansion. Almost excellent game that has some minor flaws. I really like player mats and galaxy creation mechanics.

Very evocative of the Elite computer games, with simple pick-up and deliver gameplay, and a not-so-simple combat mechanism. ;-) The only real nitpick is that too many of the various event cards serve only to stall the game without any other effect... :-/

Only done some basic rule learning games so far and seems interesting enough, however we are getting the feeling that this is the other half of Ad Astra. If some one found a way to tie both these games together we'd have a great game!

Having played Merchant of Venus and having conflicting views on it, i now look back on this more favorably. Phantom League isn't necessarily better than MoV but they are in the same league.

Pretty solid adventure game. Certainly has more going on than Talisman, and shorter and simpler than some newer adventure titles.

The end game is basically king of the hill though. Who evers ahead gets sniped at, and if he falls 2nd place wins by virtue of being 2nd. Combat is very random, even with the rules modifications, due to the card deck, and probably more effort than its worth.

Good game overall however. Im not sure how it compares with Fleet captains as i havent played the latter.

Board game inspired by Elite. Fun to play and has several strategies for victory. Reasonable playtime for a space exploration game. If you do not want to command your galactic empire, but just want to cruise around the galaxy as a lone bounty hunter, pirate, smuggler or merchant, this is the game to get.

This game is SO CLOSE to what I wanted it to be. I appreciate that the combat resolution is intended to "tell the story" of each skirmish, but it take far, far too long to slog through. I don't want combat to be just a roll of the dice either, but there needs to be a happy medium. I like the different paths to victory, allowing for the variety of characters and ship types. The Pilot Academy expansion adds a lot of cool stuff, but the combat -- although even more cinematic and clever -- was slowed even more!

Unfortunatley, the game is now dismissed by several friends. I need to make some serious changes and have good player aids at the ready if this is going to be played again with others. And I want to!

21-Jan-2014: This one first caught my eye on the SGoYT lists. I've only played it twice at the time of this writing and only solitaire, but I really like it. The theme is very Firefly-like. You must explore the galaxy, transport goods and other cargo, fight off space pirates, and deal with various government officials.

You may choose the path of Fame or Notoriety. Good guy or bad...it's your call. Each will offer different sets of challenges and different missions to complete. Lots of replayability with random hex map setup, multiple choices for spacecraft and captain, and several different missions. The game is completely card based, including combat (which is a little wonky at first but not too difficult to figure out after a couple of rounds).

Lots of theme in this game. Components are very nice as well. Add in the first expansion for even more variety in all aspects of the game. Definitely worth it.